Just a former US soldier who served 2 tours in Iraq and his thoughts on life, family, the Army, and other insights.****DISCLAIMER**** ALL opinions expressed on this blog are those of myself in my private capacity and not as a representative of the DoD, DA, or any particular element of the Government. By viewing this site you accept and agree to this disclaimer in the use of any information accessed in this website.

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Tuesday, June 28, 2005

TAKE CARE

For the next couple of weeks the posting to my blog will be sporadic if at all. Thank you for all the opinions that have been brought here. I will be back. In the meanwhile feel free to check out the ARCHIVES section on the right hand side.

Wow Hurria, way to completely kill this moment of joy? I would bet money that if Zach, or anyone that comments on here, were to say "I pet a fuzzy puppy today and it made me happy" that you have some way to twist it and make it negative and the writer feel guilty for ever having said they were happy, even for that brief moment. Prove me wrong.

one positie action??????? you could invite hurria to visit you, wherever you are. (Make the sacrifice for an Enemy.) all her expenses paid, to experience the wonders and dreams of the usa experience.

honestly, how could she aspire to the wonders of usA¿ she's not been able to travel, like you all. and now, with all the bombs and rapes and electricity cuts, water borne diseases, waht can she do?¿ ............?

its nice, this softness of feminine observations, be it uSa, iraQi or other ladies. LISTEN LISTEN this wind-borne softness message.

I can't tell if you're really going on leave Zach. But, feel free to email me (via my blog) if you'd like to visit Ontario, Canada. I might know some people that you, and the family can stay with. I can't make any promises, but I can try to line something up.

Zack,Are you really going on leave!?!? I am so happy for you and for your family! I am so excited to hear your stories when you get back!So much love to you and your family!Words can not express the thanks for the sacrifices you all have made! Take care of yourself! And love every moment!God Bless!

I am so very sorry to rain on the parade, by reminding you of the reality faced by tens of millions of Iraqis 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 365 days a year without a moment's respite.

I am glad Zach and his comrades are able to take a break, even if it is a short one, from the violence and horror that they brough with them when they forced their way into the country 27 months ago. I am not even a little bit sorry to remind you that the overwhelming majority of Iraqis do not have any such option, even for five minutes.

My greatest wish is that this leave for Zach will not be just a temporary respite, but that he will not ever be required to return, and that all of his comrades will suddenly find themselves back among their families permanently. That will be a big relief for Zach and his family, I am sure, and for the families of all his comrades. It will be an even bigger relief for Iraqis.

Hurria, I never agreed with us invading your country, nor did many other Americans. I don't believe that war is EVER the answer and I believe that what Bush did was very very wrong. Almost everyone I know believes that Bush should have never started this war. My question is this, what do you suggest that we do? Yes, we live in a "democratic" nation, but when it comes down to stopping our government, we can't. I feel helpless. I hate that my vote AGAINST Bush didn't matter. I hate that my opinions will never be heard by anyone important because I don't hold a position in our government. What is the answer? More violence? I would love to hear what you think that we can do from over here, in the states. Unfortunately in the US, if you have money, you can do whatever you want, and as a teacher, I'm not getting anywhere with my small salary.

Hurria, we are sooooo sorry that your opinion differs from most of us that "personally" wish to support OUR troops. We did not make the call, nor did they. I don't know what form of society that you come from, but this is OURS, good or bad, but if you expect us to abandon OUR troops, you are dead wrong! If you expect OUR troops to abandon their pledge, good or bad, you again are dead wrong. So basically what I want to let you know right now is that WE THE PEOPLE don't give a FUCK what YOU think! We love and support OUR troops and we too want them home NOW! We love and support EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM, man and woman alike, and we do want them home NOW! Why would OUR troops want to voluntarily be in a country that was killing themselves to begin with? Duh! Now they work overtime to kill themselves and OUR troops too!

Bottom line - FUCK what you or anyone like you thinks! There, I said it! I hated to have to be sooooo ignorant in public, but you took me there and it needed to be said.

Now I feel better! You can't move US! We've got this! Sorry that you can't control it because guess what? Neither can we.

Much love and prayers to ALL OF OUR TROOPS OUT THERE. We support and love YOU! May you ALL come home safe to the families that await and love you too!

ask your stepmama for some phosphate free soap and wash out your mouth. if a soft spoken woman in an invaded country needs to "take you there....." to say naughty words, you must be a REAL he man. or she woman. your comments show strength of character which would be useful in iraq or afghanistan.

all these warm fuzzies directed to zach and the rest of the gi's are cute displays of affection. but not much more. lets call things as they are. an m16 is used to kill. zach and his buddies are pulling the trigger. pitiful, immoral, myopic behavior and now you're fishing for sympathy for them................

support huh? how will you support your KILLERS when they're back on the street in jersey or sioux falls? will you hire them, infected as they are with their ptsd? and depleted uranium? are you writing your congressmen daily to increase their VA benefits? i bet not.

you want to feel oh so good? take a spin up to the 7-11 in your suv, buy yourself a KING SIZE slurpy and sing god bless ameriKa. it 'll make you feel sooooooo usa slurpin good. stream it to us so hurria and the rest of us miscreants can sing along.

hey man your site and you have been showcased in our national paper..Congrats...I know the war is a terrible thing...but on the other hand i dont know what it brings with it. To me war has only been a menace portrayed in the pages of "all quite on the western front" by Erich maria Remarque. But those U.S and mostly Iraqi ppl who have lost their cartilage while upholding their own idealism might not agree to the bookish horror portrayed in Remarque's world. The war is such a terrible thing that brings with it spit,flesh,bones and blood..and lots of them. The wind becomes your enemy, whispers weird and unhealthy incantations in your air..thats what leads a homo sapiens to formulate acts of anarchy which rarely seem humane. You U.S ppl could have just abducted Saddam or done something with his minions...you were after all superior in espionage,missile weaponry,covert ops training etc...so why did you actually launch a fully fledged invasion? I guess you cant answer that...hell even G.Bush cant either...because he's not the puppet-master here...he has never been...he doesn't have the intellect,shrewdness and subtlety to formulate such an act of oppression and then make it look like it was done all in favour of freedom..where as freedom is a prime-number word(7) and oppression is not(9).Well nice to hear sort of "confessional" talks from the mouth of a U.S GI'joes...after all its you,comrades taken out of the general people of USA who are sacrificing your life for a cause that has become more perplexed than riemann's hypothesis....there's no Junior-George W Bush, or Junior Condolizza Rice in those garrisons you have..you dont see the intestine of Junior-Dick-chaney fly around when ever there is a blast...infact its the genral mothers of the genral masses who's anguish becomes vague with useless rumbling from the defence-administration.

Thats a great view you have on the whole war itself..if you dont die in stray bullet...or in an accident while eating dorritos in Boston...you and i can both enjoy the views of the whole war ending in one massive vat of voidness.

"The terrorists who attacked us and the terrorists we face murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance and despises all dissent.

"Terrorists" are not a cohesive ideological category like "Communists" as Bush suggests. Lots of groups use terror as a tactic. The Irgun Zionists in 1946 and 1947 did, as well. Also ETA in Spain, about the terrorist acts of which Americans seldom hear in their newspapers (they are ongoing). The Baath regime in Iraq engaged in so little international terrorism in the late 1990s and early zeroes that it was not even on the US State Department list of sponsors of terrorism. Bush could take the above rationale and use it to invade most countries in the world.

"To achieve these aims, they have continued to kill: in Madrid, Istanbul, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Bali and elsewhere.

Yes, and these were al-Qaeda operations, and you haven't caught Bin Laden or al-Zawahiri.

"The commander in charge of coalition operations in Iraq, who is also senior commander at this base, General John Vines, put it well the other day. He said, We either deal with terrorism and this extremism abroad, or we deal with it when it comes to us."

This is monstrous and ridiculous at once. The people in Fallujah and Ramadi were not sitting around plotting terrorism three years ago. They had no plans to hit the United States. Terrorism isn't a fixed quantity. By unilaterally invading Iraq and then bollixing it up, Bush and Vines have created enormous amounts of terrorism, which they are now having trouble putting back in the bottle.

"Our military reports that we have killed or captured hundreds of foreign fighters in Iraq who have come from Saudi Arabia and Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and others."

Maybe 8 percent of the fighters in Iraq are foreign jihadis. Of the some 25,000 guerrillas, almost all are Iraqi Sunni Arabs who dislike foreign military occupation of their country. You could imagine what people in Alabama or Kentucky would do if foreign troops came in and tried to set up checkpoints in their neighborhoods.

Moreover, many of those jihadis fighting in Iraq wouldn't even be jihadis if they weren't outraged by Bush's invasion and occupation of a Muslim country.

The fact is that the US went in and convinced the Sunni Arabs of Iraq that we were going to screw them over royally, driving them into violent opposition. They aren't inherently terrorists and could have been won over.

There are no Iraqi military units that can and will fight independently against the Sunni guerrillas, so all those statistics he quoted are meaningless.

Almost all the coalition allies of the US have a short timetable for getting out of the quagmire before it goes really bad. Bush's quotation of all that international support sounds more hollow each time he voices it.

The political process in Iraq has not helped end the guerrilla war. It has excluded Sunnis or alienated them so that they excluded themselves. It offers no hope in and of itself.

There was nothing new in Bush's speech, and most of what he said was inaccurate.

someguyGood point about our special operations capabilities. I knew from the get go that something was seriously wrong when we sent heavy units into Afghanistan and Iraq. If we really wanted to win a "war on terror" it is not done conventionally. Terror is a method used by those who feel they do not have the resources to attack conventionally AND are willing to kill civilians. 9/11 was a terror attack, the attack on the USS Cole was a guerrilla attack being it was a military target. Terrorist operate much the same as organized crime. Here in the U.S., when we go after gangsters, we don't blow up the neighborhood. It's not that the Constitution won't allow us to (it doesn't though); it's that it is innefective and is counterproductive.So this goes to franks comments about alienating people. When you blow up the neighborhood, you lose the support of those that would help or at least stay out of it.

In case anybody's interested, here is an excerpt from an ex-CIA analyst's view of Bush's Iraq policy http://www.counterpunch.org/mcgovern06292005.html :

....A General with the Courage to Speak Truth

More outspoken still has been Lt. Gen. William Odom (US Army, ret), the most respected senior intelligence officer still willing to speak out on strategic and intelligence issues. Unfortunately, you would have to understand German to know what he thinks of "staying the course" in Iraq, because U.S. media are not going to run his remarks.

Here is my translation of what Gen. Odom said last September on German TV's Panorama program:

"When the president says he is staying the course, that makes me really afraid. For a leader has to know when to change course. Hitler did not change his course: rather he kept sending more and more troops to Stalingrad and they suffered more and more casualties.

"When the president says he is staying the course it reminds me of the man who has just jumped from the Empire State Building. Half-way down he says, 'I am still on course.' Well, I would not want to be on course with a man who will lie splattered in the street. I would like to be someone who could change the course...

"Our invasion of Iraq has made it a homeland for al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Indeed, I believe that it was the very first time that many Iraqis became terrorists. Before we invaded, they had no idea of terrorism."

Right on Holly. I completely agree. Hurria, no one has forgotten about you. No one is telling you to stop posting your comments, but you sound like a broken record. I'm not speaking solely on my behalf, but also on Tara, Zach's wife's behalf. The only reason I get on your case is because you say the same things over and over, though I suppose I'm doing the same. Bottom line, no one has forgotten about you, where you are, and what you are going through so you don't have to "remind" us everytime Zach posts something. I feel bad that some people choose to say it so harshly when you're going through enough as it is, so I'm trying to be nice about it. You are always in my thoughts and I wish the best for you and your family.And I agree very strongly with some of what anon said above. I don't think any of America feels comforted by Bush's words right now. He spits the same crud everytime he gives a speech about not having a time table. He's quick to give the Iraqi's a time table for everything, but he can't tell us when we can go home. I understand his reasons but it is very discomforting to think that we will either be there for an indefinite amount of time until they can stand on their own, or we will abandon them in the midst of a civil war. No one wins, no matter what we do.

News flash: Iraq is a disaster. I've been back one day, and the airport road was the worst I've ever seen it. We had to go around a fire-fight between mujahideen and Americans while Iraqi forces sat in the shade of date palms on the side of the road, their rifles resting across their laps. My driver pointed to a group of men in a white pickup next to me. “They are mujahideen,” he said. “They are watching the Americans.” Indeed, they were, and so intently that they paid no attention to me in the car next to them. We detoured around two possible car bombs that had been cordoned off while Iraqis cautiously approached.

Rumsfeld's assessment of “good progress” on the constitution is not accurate, as the committee to draw it up still hasn't completely agreed on how the Sunnis will take part.

When I was in Ramadi, I found the morale to be lower than expected. It wasn't rock-bottom among the Marines of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, but it wasn't great. Most of the ones I talked to weren't confident they were doing anything worthwhile, and were instead focused on getting home alive. If a few Iraqis had to die to make that happen, well, war is hell.

I'm not sure who's winning this war, the Americans or the insurgents. But I know who is losing it: the Iraqi people. Those bumps in the road are their graves.

touching kristen, you're words of solidarity to hurria and her family. maybe next time you could suggest she and her family eat cake?

Hey, just wanted to wish you well on leave and say that I have added a link to your blog from mine because I like yours. If that is an issue let me know and I will get rid of the link SGT, talk to you later.

I'm new here and did not find the time to read all your posts yet - but the few I read are *fantastic*.

(I'm French, living in Versailles, France, then please excuse the mistakes I can make in English)

I don't want to make any political comments on the fact that invading Iraq was a good thing or not - now it's history - just want you to know that you soldiers and all the Iraqies people are in my thoughts and in the thoughts of a lot of my compatriots. I hope that in a very near future we all, American, European, Arabs, will be able to find the best solution to stop all these horrible things happening in Iraq, all these bombs killing civilians and soldiers.

Just want you to know that, even if I disagree sometimes with decisions that your or my governement can take, I fully support you as soldier, who do "his job" as well as he can, and I do know how difficult this job is.

geez, hurria, if you hate it so much, why don't you move to another country?

once the war is over, make sure you don't enjoy the freedoms you will have. my apologies, but honestly, your miserable comments are insufferable. some people in your situation wake up every morning and praise god for allowing them to see the sun one more day. they take immense pleasure in spending time with their families; it makes it much more precious. see, it's the little things in life that make it worth living. any of us could die at any time. i ask god that he grant you the gift of being able to enjoy those little moments.

daedalus if you still think that the invasion of Iraq will bring Iraqis freedom in the American way and the fact that you're asking God for someone to tolerate suffering and abuse makes you extremely naive and a moron.

Why don't you pray to God to make things better for everyone concern instead of stepping on others opinions and values.

Zach, have a great time with your family and friends. Hope you dont need to return. But if you do, God Bless.

And dont worry about all these people who cant appreciate what USA is doing in the middle east.

The iraquis are used to violence, death, torture, and oppression. They have lived this life since saddam gained his seat of power.

It is sad to note that indeed, the iraquis are suffering on a daily basis, but how much of that is at the hands of the coallition?

Aren't the insurrgents suicide-bombing their own civilian infrastructure? Police recruiting facilities? Their water treatment plants? Just because we helped build and finance it? The same as we did for EUROPE after we helped them.... TWICE!

and did that take 2-3-4 years? was it easy? did nobody suffer? are they greatful for our intervention?

the last anon commenter might like to read this...... http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45087 or this: http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/signs.htm or this: http://www.juancole.com/

if anyone in the usa thinks the usa is helping iraq, or people in the middle east, they are dumber than a bag of rocks. the usa really helped the american indians too. and the panamanians. and the foks in el salvador.

its simply incredible how DUH DUH DUMB americans are proud to be. (but if all you want to look at are fox and cnn, whose to blame?)

wake up folks. butchKo is going to pull the carpet out from under you, real soon. he and his gang of thugs belong in leavenworth penetentiary, life without parole and no tv or cell phones or doritos or chicken pilaf.

are we sure the Iraqis (of which I am proudly) are in fact angry that the americans interfered?

did they do this for our benefit?

are we better off? should they just stayed out of our lives?

my nephews have diedbecause of this insurgency> but they think that the americans care about the oil. the americans care about finishing their responsibility with their government. they want to go home. they want to go to school.. my son wants the opportunity to go to school.

he wants to travel. he wants to speak different languages.

i want to travel. to have the freedom to meet different people.

my husband dies trying to protect irqaqis from outsiders, but the only ones to help him were American soldiers.

For the moment he had shut his ears to the remoter noises and was listening to the stuff that streamed out of the telescreen. It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. The fabulous statistics continued to pour out of the telescreen.

George Orwell

Stunning Victory!

The latest reports from the Anbar Front show the swinish subhuman terrorists in headlong retreat, after suffering massive casualties at the hands of our heroic troops.

Army information specialists say the fleeing enemy has left behind evidence of unbelievable atrocities -- including mass graves, torture chambers, sadistic scientific experiments, the use of nerve gas, smallpox and anthrax against innocent civilians, and millions of DVDs and videotapes of prisoner beheadings.

Intelligence analysts say captured enemy documents show terrorist mastermind Abu Musab Zarqawi in complete despair over his losses. "Fanatical cowards such as we can never defeat the awesome power of America," the evil monster laments in one captured letter. "Democracy has triumphed."

In cities across America, spontaneous demonstrations are in full swing, as College Republicans and other patriotic groups express their undying devotion to our beloved party leaders.

At the White House, a steely-eyed President Bush vowed not to settle for anything less than total victory. "Our purpose is firm, our moral vision clear," he said. "We will never -- never -- negotiate with terrorists."

(In a related development, Pentagon officials say they have reached an agreement with Sunni freedom fighters to evacuate the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad. Transfer of sovereignty to the newly proclaimed Islamic Caliphate of Iraq will occur at midnight.)

Posted by billmon at 04:18 PM

Editorial

We support the troops and you should too. It feels good to say "we support the troops," so we think you should say it a lot. It will make you feel better about the war.

"We support the troops."

Don't you feel better now? We sure do.

Some people say we should ask tough questions about the war, because it's been going on for a couple of years and a lot of our troops are still getting killed. But the bad guys haven't gone away. In fact it looks like there's more of them.

But we support the troops, so we're not going to ask tough questions. It's really annoying when people ask tough questions -- almost as bad as when people criticize us. Bloggers ask a lot of tough questions. Bloggers criticize us a lot. We don't like bloggers. They're unethical.

We don't remember why the troops are in Iraq, but we know there must be a good reason. We could look it up on the Internet, but that's hard. And we don't have much time, because of all the shark attacks. Sharks are scary, but also really cool. We like sharks.

But we definitely support the troops. Especially when they die.

Posted by billmon at 03:38 PM

Let's Invade Iran

The AEI says they'll have the bomb any day now. But Kenneth Timmerman says the people love us. He was on the Daily Show.

The White House says things are going really swell in Iraq. So I guess we have enough troops for the job. Plus we've got Shock and Awe. I really like Shock and Awe. I like to watch.

This should be a cakewalk.

I wonder what's going on with that woman in Aruba . . .

Posted by billmon at 02:55 PM

Celebrities Sure Are Fascinating

I wonder what Michael Jackson's up to these days. Don't his fans have a right to know?

Or a pretty blonde white woman who everybody thinks is missing, but who's actually been attacked and eaten by a monster white shark! With Roy Scheider! And Richard Dreyfuss! And exploding shark heads!!!

When the American people give their government no other choice. What will it take? I have heard that some say only the return of the draft will arouse enough of the American public for that kind of action.

Even then, your government will try its best to avoid giving up what it went there to obtain - which is its planned permanent major military presence, and its mega-embassy, which is really a command and control center for its military, political and economic operations in the region. It cannot be allowed to succeed in this. This will not be good for the US, and it will be very, very bad for Iraq.

Hurria, I am very sorry for all that you have lost. Have any of you thought about what it is like for the families that are left behind? Especially Zach's wife? I can tell you what it is like. My husband was in the Gulf during Desert Storm. We got word a few days ago that he is going to be deployed to Iraq. This time we have three little girls to tell. We have to tell them that their daddy has to go to Iraq. They have already lost their biological parents to this war. My husabnd and I adopted my nieces. While he was in the Gulf I cried alot. I felt guilty when I did something fun. He felt guilty because he wasn't there for me. I worried about his safe return. My heart stopped each time there was a knock on the door. I feared that it was the knock that would tell me my husband was killed and how brave he was and that he died an honorable death. When he came back he wasn't the same man that left. He was withdrawn. He had violent nightmares. We couldn't sleep in the same bed for about 2 years because he feared he would hurt me in his sleep. Alot of counseling later he is the same man I married at 17. There are still nights that he can't sleep due to vivid nightmares of his time in the Gulf.We have three girls that need their daddy. I can't show my feelings as much this time aound because I don't want to worry those innocent girls. The twins will be starting kindergarten this fall. Now their daddy can't keep his promise to them. He can't walk them to school for he will be gone. I will have to get another job to support the girls, pay the mortgage, and other assorted bills. The girls will have to go to daycare for the first time. I am just thankful that they don't fully understand what daddy will be doing and the danger he is in.We just thought that the military days were over when he was discharged 6 months ago. Guess we were wrong. He was called back into active duty.I just want to know from the politicans: If this war is so important why aren't your sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives over there?Just a military wife's reality.Zach, hope you stay safe and return home for good. My prayers are with you and your family as well as with all that are affected by this war.

Hurria, I completely agree. America needs to cut ties with Iraq as far wanting a major military presense there permanently. Putting an Embassy in place will only cause further damage to the country. If the country doesn't go into civil war when we leave, you will be much better off. Well provided that another, economically stronger country doesn't come in and take over.I'm just curious. How do you speak English so well? You are able to vocalize your opinions much better than some Americans I know. Maybe I'm mistaken, but you live in Iraq right? or do you live in the US and have family in Iraq? I wasn't leaving comments very often when you started posting so I'm unfamiliar with your background.

Just some stuff I found. Really the solution is simple: over 50 million Americans voted for Bush. I know, without a doubt, that there are plenty of 18-39 year olds in that demographic that can serve in Iraq. There are 144,000 troops in Iraq? Surely there are enough eligible Americans who "Support the Troops" that can join the Army and double (maybe triple) the number of active duty troops. Enlist, get a commission, whatever. That way, the US wont have to stoploss anymore troops, no more recalls to active duty, and there will be plenty of "boots on the ground." And if you cannot qualify for service in the US Army (who has a waiver for EVERYTHING) encourage your son or daughter or friend or father or mother to enlist. It is a great honor to serve. Now, if you are a spouse of a deployed soldier, that is rough so I say you are doing your time, but when your spouse comes home, you should deploy. That way, you can avoid those pesky "I had it worse than you arguements."Imagine if each military eligible citizen in the US volunteered 18 months of thier time, the burdon of this conflict would be shared by all (therefore much easier to carry).

you and your ameriKan "friends and allies would best go home and plant vegetable gardens........ http://abutamam.blogspot.com/

mr/ms hurria....... any commment here?

f

What do you call ..

A Letter to the British People.

From Iman as-Saadun.

I’m sending this letter to the British people and in particular to the residents of London. For a period of hours, you have lived through moments of desperate anxiety and horror. In those hours you lost a member of your family or a friend, and we wish to tell you in total honesty that we too grieve when human lives pass away. I cannot tell you how much we hurt when we see desperation and pain on the face of another person. For we have lived through this situation – and continue to live through it every day – since your country and the United States formed an alliance and laid plans to attack Iraq.

The Prime Minister of your country, Tony Blair, said that those who carried out the explosions did so in the name of Islam. The Secretary of State of the United States, Condaleezza Rice, described the bombings as an act of barbarism. The United Nations Security Council met and unanimously condemned the event.

I would like to ask you, the free British people, to allow me to inquire: in whose name was our country blockaded for 12 years? In whose name were our cities bombed using internationally prohibited weapons? In whose name did the British army kill Iraqis and torture them? Was that in your name? Or in the name of religion? Or humanity? Or freedom? Or democracy?

What do you call the killing of more than two million children? What do you call the pollution of the soil and the water with depleted uranium and other lethal substances?

What do you call what happened in the prisons in Iraq – in Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca and the many other prison camps? What do you call the torture of men, women, and children? What do you call tying bombs to the bodies of prisoners and blowing them apart? What do you call the refinement of methods of torture for use on Iraqi prisoners – such as pulling off limbs, gouging out eyes, putting out cigarettes on their skin, and using cigarette lighters to set fire to the hair on their heads? Does the word “barbaric” adequately describe the behavior of your troops in Iraq?

May we ask why the Security Council did not condemn the massacre in al-Amiriyah and what happened in al-Fallujah, Tal‘afar, Sadr City, and an-Najaf? Why does the world watch as our people are killed and tortured and not condemn the crimes being committed against us? Are you human beings and we something less? Do you think that only you can feel pain and we can’t? In fact it is we who are most aware of how intense is the pain of the mother who has lost her child, or the father who has lost his family. We know very well how painful it is to lose those you love.

You don’t know our martyrs, but we know them. You don’t remember them, but we remember them. You don’t cry over them, but we cry over them.

Have you heard the name of the little girl Hannan Salih Matrud? Or of the boy Ahmad Jabir Karim? Or Sa‘id Shabram?

Yes, our dead have names too. They have faces and stories and memories. There was a time when they were among us, laughing and playing. They had dreams, just as you have. They had a tomorrow awaiting them. But today they sleep among us with no tomorrow on which to wake.

We don’t hate the British people or the peoples of the world. This war was imposed upon us, but we are now fighting it in defense of our selves. Because we want to live in our homeland – the free land of Iraq – and to live as we want to live, not as your government or the American government wish.

Let the families of those killed know that responsibility for the Thursday morning London bombings lies with Tony Blair and his policies.

Stop your war against our people! Stop the daily killing that your troops commit! End your occupation of our homeland!

Thanks for your compliment on my English. I love language very much, and I am lucky that I learned English at a very young age, and had a lot of exposure to it through literature, English speaking people, and other sources. I also know several other languages but less well than English or Arabic.

Given the nature of the discussions, and some of the types of people involved, I hope you can understand why I prefer not to discuss personal information, especially location of self, family, and friends, on a public web site. I can tell you that I have traveled widely, and lived in a number of different places, and that much of my family is, sadly, like many Iraqi families spread all over the globe.

By the way, many Iraqis are multilingual, especially members of minorities which have their own languages. They do not so much have a first language as first langauges.

"Iyad Allawi, the former puppet of the US, now says Iraq is right on the edge of civil war. So, now Allawi decides to tell the truth???"

Iyad `Allawi still has no clue what is going on in Iraq. Iraq is not on the edge of a civil war, it has been engaged in one for some time.

The best thing that can happen for Iraq now, as always, is for the U.S. to get the hell out - troops, mega-embassy (aka command and control center), "advisors", puppets, wannabe puppets, contractors. Everybody out now. Oh, and leave your checkbook at the door when you leave. You've got a lot of reparations to pay.

Hurria, you're welcome. I too share that love of languages, although my Arabic is certainly not nearly as perfect as your English. Additionally, my dialect is atrocious. I really can only speak MSA and at a lower highschool level at that.I've spoken to some Iraqis before. Many of them speak the regional dialects as well as some Kurdish, but not too many of them recognize MSA unless they watch news stations such as AlJazeera. I know a few of them learned English at an early age too, but unless they kept up with it through literature or international television, their English is alittle broken. Even some of our Arabic teachers who have lived in the States for some time had a hard time understanding us. I just wanted to say that I was impressed by how fluently you speak it.I understand that you can not reveal your location. I shouldn't have asked. Curiosity gets the better of me sometimes.

Kristen, formal Arabic (MSA) is a much more difficult language than English is, and don't forget I have known English from a very early age and have been exposed to it regularly throughout my life.

Actually, the Arabic dialects are much easier than MSA mainly because the grammar is a lot simpler. However, there are a lot of dialects and sub-dialects, and they can be very different. Even within Iraq the northern dialect is radically different from that of Baghdad, for example.

It sounds like many of the Iraqis you know are young Kurds if they do not know MSA. All other Iraqis must know it because it is what they study in school. Iraqi Kurds used to study both Kurdish and Arabic (and English usually) in school but most of the younger ones have not studied Arabic at all, which is very stupid and short sighted. Most educated Kurds from the older generations have impeccable Arabic, and some of the younger ones do too, but most younger ones have not been educated in Arabic.

One of the many things that most Americans do not know about Iraq is that Instruction in the technical and scientific fields is done in English, and all engineering reports are written in English. Consequently people who go into these fields must be competent in speaking, reading, and writing English.

"The best thing that Kan happen for Iraq now, as always, is for the U.S. to get the hell out."

Stupid IraKKis!

If you & the IraKi people really wanted to keep foreigners out, you would have gotten rid of your own diKtater, and eleKted someone who would have Kooperated with the U.N. and been a good neighbor to the rest of the world.

But since you didn't we had to Kome over there & do your job for you. You & the IraKi people Kreated, or allowed your problems to exist. And you allowed a diKtater to reign, kill his own people, and threaten the rest of the world.

You all Kan say thats a lie, or just AmeriKan greed talking, but I suppose Iran & Israel bombed a vacant building back in 07 June 1981. Or the Coalition air raid on 17 January 1991. Both air raids, and many more, were specifically designated for the destruction of Iraq's nuclear weapons program infrastructure that was KNOWN to have existed.

Are you saying that we should have stopped in Afghanistan, even after many of the Taliban/Al-Qaeda fighters had fled into Iraq? Do you think that UN sanctions, or harsh words would have made Saddam give them up? Or maybe the UN inspections that worked so well after desert storm?

A leader who is willing to murder his own people wholesale ( http://massgraves.info/ ), will have absolutely have no qualms about using any Weapon of Mass Destruction that he could get his hands on. Now mix in a ready and willing terrorist force, the possiblility of WMD's, and pray they don't strike in your neck of the woods! LIES? I don't think so!

Besides anyone who has been paying attention, will know the only LIES about this war, are political partisan LIES.

Hurria,That's what I meant by scary. I find it scary that other human beings feel that way because of our Forces invading their country. Don't be so quick to argue. I was agreeing with you. If you want to change things you have to not be so quick to jump. People don't react well to being berated by someone (especially when their view-points are the same). It doesn't reflect well on your intelligence.

Don's you be so quick to take something negatively. There was nothing of a berating nature in what I said to you. I am sorry you found it necessary to make an insulting comment about my intelligence.

I am afraid I still do not understand what you find scary about the sentiments aroused by your government turning Iraq and Iraqis' lives into a hell on earth. They seem to me to be the types of sentiments that flow naturally from such circumstances.

We thought it was bad with Saddam Hussein, and many Iraqis were sure that anything would be better than Saddam, but it has become obvious that this was not correct.

Oh, my. This is what truly scares me, the kind of anger that twists people and makes them incapable of having any kind of civil discussion. Thankfully most of you who post here are thoughtful and open to learning the truth from each other. Name-calling doesn't accomplish a single thing except to maybe release some of the pressure this explosive anger must be causing. I'm sorry for someone who is in such deep pain that all he/she can do is rant.

I have no doubt that Hurria is genuine and again I salute her for showing up and telling her truth over and over. It's hard to hear but the very least we can do.

Maybe you all know about this website: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/which is young woman reporting on daily life in Baghdad. Like Hurria's postings, it has the ring of truth and there's no way it can be coming from Ann Arbor.

Anyway, Hurria, I ask again a question from a week or so ago. For those of us who are so hoping that one way or another we will end the U.S. occupation of Iraq (and I think we have to sooner than later, because we're going to run out of soldiers to send there...) is there anything that well-meaning (and currently pretty ineffective) people outside Iraq can do to help? We sit here in our comfortable lives and wring our hands and I do believe that if there were some kind of useful effort we could get behind (besides eternally writing letters to the editor, barraging our congresspeople, etc.) we would do it.

I'm looking for the concrete and possible, for ordinary people. And certainly now rather than waiting.

Wow, so much hostility on this board lately!Yes Hurria, most of the Iraqi men I talked to were younger Kurdish men. A few of our teachers couldn't understand our slang, but that is to be expected since most of them were fairly old.I did run into a Syrian man during a field exercise that I was to interpret for but he either couldn't understand me or wasn't willing to work with me.And I didn't know that most of those technical and scientific instructions were written in English! That is very interesting. I think the main reason I have a hard time with the dialect is because I was so used to the complicated MSA. I had trained to think in MSA so to change it and eliminate alot of the grammar rules proved difficult for me. Egyptian was the hardest because it resembles almost nothing to MSA. We also didn't spend alot of time on dialect becaue we weren't to be tested on it. The only things I remember from Iraqi dialect were some pronunciations were different, n'am changed to iy, and the "ki" feminine ending changed to "ch".I wish America was more like every other country in the world in the advocating of second and third languages in schools. We are so arrogant to think that if anyone wants to talk to us, they better learn our language.

"I wish America was more like every other country in the world in the advocating of second and third languages in schools. We are so arrogant to think that if anyone wants to talk to us, they better learn our language"

I thought Spanish was our second language. I think it would qualify as one because enough people here speak it.

Yeah Spanish should be our second language and most schools in the Southwestern states are teaching Spanish alongside english. Those kids will be much better off in the real world. Now a days it is so important to have a second language. I took 5 years of Spanish and I knew enough of it to get by quite well. Since I've been out of practice and my Arabic has sort of replaced it, I really can only understand it when I hear it or read it. I can't produce it anymore.

Hurria, I have followed a couple of exchanges you had with other bloggers and I can understand the level of anger you hold against those who have invaded your country, and have directly or indirectly caused the amount of carnage and loss that has ensued ever since. I have also not read this blog long enough to learn of your personal story. I have lived through war before, but I can only imagine from the comfort of my living room what an "ordinary" Iraqi's life might be like today.

I am trying though to understand if there is any way out of this misery. Is there a solution for the current problem of occupation? I mean , the US/coalition invasion and occupation was the catalyst for the daily tragedy that was to follow. But now that the country faces the threat of a different type: suicide bombings that target the innocent in mosques, cemetaries, and the targeted killing of key religious figures, all aiming at destabilising the country from a sectarian point of view, do you have a sense that maybe we are looking at civil war once the occupation ends? Do you share with me the same fears that we are looking at other dark forces that are trying to descend this country into the abyss? You have mentioned in an earlier blog that you are afraid that you will not see again the Iraq you once knew in your lifetime. If there is a ray of hope that Iraq will move forward,then it looks to me that the only way out is by following the current process which started with parliamentary elections, the forming of the government and the writing of the constitution, and hope that the Iraqi government would be strong and independant enough to soon ask for foreign forces to leave Iraq. Your thoughts?